Tried several over the last couple of weeks. Dom 96 twice and still thought it needed help. Krug '90, Billecarte salmon resersve, Gaston chiquet, Etc...... I love good champagne but still have to decide where my palate lies with the critrics.....or you people. Bring it; I need to know and figure out the good stuff.

I love Delamotte (which is a sister winery to Salon.....it gets the grapes that salon does not want sometimes). I also very much like Pierre Moncuit Delos Brut Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc Champagne. It is a very pure champagne without as much of the yeasty, biscuit sense about it.

I like Taittinger. I usually prefer a Champagne with a high percentage of Pinot Noir grapes. Prefered Philipponnat Clos des Goisses to the Pol Roger Winston Churchill at one tasting (one time when I prefered the less expensive product). Don't have much experience with Champagne but have seen numerous good reviews of the Egly-Ouriet and the Billecourt Salmon.

Pol is one house wine for us, but there's a "yeah but". We find NV Bolly (his) a full body regular and VC Ponsardin (hers) a light or medium body favorite. The Pol sits right in the middle and we both like it. It may actually 'feel' a little heavy like the Bolly because to my taste it's a bit sweet. The dosage teeters on being "overdosage". Billecart can't be beat for a light rose'. And "when I'm thirsty..." (stolen from Mdme. Lilly Bollinger), '96 Grand Dame or my absolute favorite since tasting it at its birthplace in December, Jacquesson '96 Avize. It has a richness ala 96 along with an elegance you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

I'm not a fan of the bubbly. It tastes like sour bread to me, but that could be because I've mostly only had mediocre el-cheapo brands; however, when I was in Napa eight years ago we went to Taittinger, and I have to admit, I have never tasted anything as good.

My wife also says we looked at the view off a big veranda and saw artificial sheep on the grass. I don't remember that. It was the end of a long "tasting" day, and I was three-sheets to the wind by then anyway. Thank God I wasn't driving.

The NV is super-yummy... So full of flavor. My dad always thought champagne was over-rated till I gave him a split of the Egly.

Last New Year's we had their Rose. Smelled like a fruit cake, tasted like a cinnamon roll without the sugar. That was great, too.. but for $20-$30 less, i'll probably stick with the basic NV...

Haven't had a whole lot of champagne, but I love the stuff. Veuve is good, like the white label, too. I like the boldness of Bollinger. Got to try the Bollinger RD 95 at an industry thing. That was really pretty, but the next sip of wine I had was a young Hermitage and I can't really remember much more about the RD [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img] I'm looking forward to the next one of those things! It's great to taste wines like that, but it's also depressing since I can't ever buy the suckers.

I DO have a bottle of 96 Dom in my teeny wine fridge. Got it as a gift! Any guesses when it'll be ready?

I was flipping through the tv the other day waiting for iron chef to come on and they were doing a tour of some extreme sports guy's house. They opened his fridge and he had Riunite raspberry (which he raved about) and a bottle of 99 Cristal. Life just isn't fair.

I dot.commed this Egly and came up with a "non dose" NV Brut. I'm deducing it's sans dosage. Jacquesson is the lowest dosage Champagne we know, at about 5g/ml (average in the region is about 12g/ml). And the Jacquesson is bone dry. If this juice is 0g, isn't it almost biting with dryness? Could you compare the dryness of the Egly to something more common that we might know?

hmmm...
Last time I had it was a couple of months ago, and unfortunately i didn't take notes then or at prior times. But i didn't notice any dryness beyond typical brut. It certainly was dry, as was the rose, but neither wine was at all harsh, just very vibrant and incredibly complex. To my taste (and memory) it's no drier than the NV's of Bollinger or Roederer or Taittinger or any of the others I've had...

After discussing this on the board I went to pick up another bottle and to my dismay found that my source is out until next holidays. I'm planning some phone calls and drives on Sunday to locate at least another bottle for my birthday in April! I'm worried, though... Our local importer/distributer is having a financial tiff with Egly. I may have to start trying to buy online.

mystery solved! They do indeed make a Non-Dose...
Saw it at the wine store I went to today....
Almost got it, but the basic NV is cheaper and I know I like it. Also got a bottle of De Sousa and Fils Blanc de Blanc Cuvee des Caudalies which was barely 1/2 the price of the Non Dose... Probably won't be drinking that until May 1st on my girlie's birthday.

The Basic Egly was $40, tne Non Dose was $60, the Sousa was $35...

I AM curious about the Non Dose, but I'm really not excited about spending that much on something I might find harsh [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

woops! just noticed. i didn't get the basic Egly NV. I got one made with 100% Pinot Meunier. This will be very interesting. Maybe I won't wait till my birthday. I'll post notes. Should be unusual. Also had very low dosage (4). we'll see about this!

While I would never claim to be a master of the bubbles, well not yet at least. One that I have found to be particularly fantastic especially with food is Mumm's DVX made from their Deveaux Vineyard. A crisp dry bubbly with toasty highlights and creamy mouthfeel. If Dom and White Star had a child, this would be it. $40 and under a bottle.

Egly is definitely one of the best in champagne ( and i live there and trade the stuff...but infortunately not egly that i have to buy like anyone else)
Selosse (one of egly's friend and the God of champagne) is another if you like blanc de blanc and so are his "disciples" vouette et sorbet (gautherot) and la closerie (jerome prevost)

if you have the opportunity to find some tarlant (again a wine i love and i do not distribute) buy some it is quite nice..and benoit is a friend ;o)

jacquesson is always nice..

as for dom perignon...the only thing really impressive there is that level of quality for 5 millions bottles...if like krug (the best pinot noir champagne righ before egly)it was 1/2 million..it wouldn't be impressive.

there are some more i would advise, but since i sell them..it wouldn't be right to talk about it here

I don't find anything wrong with tooting your own horn if you've got some good juice in your book. First of all, you know your own book well and can give an honest recommendation based on your intimate knowledge as long as its honest. You may be depriving us of a great wine through your own modesty.

I work for a distributor and have recommended my own products on this site, if I've tasted them and known them to be truly a good product that I drink myself. Why not, I have access to a level of knowledge that allows me to taste more then the average person. If a customer asks me a question about a product I don't like, I tell them that its not my preference or that its not a good product.